


Your heart in my back pocket

by brittlestars



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Karen Page ships Matt/Foggy and so do I, M/M, Matthew "Sir Not-Appearing-in-this-Fic" Murdock, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:07:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26785645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brittlestars/pseuds/brittlestars
Summary: Matt and Foggy share an office, debt, and most of their free time, so it no longer surprises Foggy when they're mistaken as a romantic couple. Where he once laughed off the assumptions, now a sudden string of good luck might be the help Foggy needs in finally acting on his long history of feelings for Matt.
Relationships: Franklin "Foggy" Nelson & Karen Page, Matt Murdock/Franklin "Foggy" Nelson
Comments: 8
Kudos: 82





	Your heart in my back pocket

"That'll be $25.21." 

"Okay." Foggy pauses in reaching for his wallet. "Wait. That can't be right. The candied ham alone is $17." 

The person behind the counter has incredibly beautiful, tightly curled brown hair and the deadest brown eyes Foggy has ever seen. He shudders and represses memories of endless hours working in retail.

The person blinks their enormous, soulless eyes. "Club members get a 20% discount on Fridays." 

"Oh. Okay, I guess." 

Foggy pays and hurries to leave before his soul, too, is trapped for eternity in the cavernous hollows of the Grocery Grotto. 

He forgets about the mysterious membership until next time he's treating himself to a post-work snack at that cute corner ice cream parlor. 

"Would you like to redeem your points?" 

This cashier is short, with a round, soft, kind-looking face. 

They have blue eyes. 

The blue eyes are flat, empty, yawning pits of blank despair. 

Foggy slams the childhood repression lid back down. 

"You know what? Sure. I have no idea how your point system works –" 

"You've got one hundred seventeen."

"Is that a lot?"

Their voice doesn't change inflection. "It's enough for three free cones or a free banana split or a kiddie-sized t-shirt." 

Foggy's stomach rumbles as he watches another teenage drone scoop out two balls of toffee ice cream for his cone. Normally he gets three scoops, but... 117 _is_ a lot of points, and the rumbling of his stomach kind of proves that. He tells himself two scoops is a good compromise, and that he wouldn't have fit in the t-shirt anyway. Even if the cartoon cow logo was adorable.

On his way out of the crowded shop, Foggy wonders if maybe he should have gotten the banana split instead, to share with Matt and Karen. But then he'd have to backtrack to the office and they've gone home by now, Karen to whatever exciting life she probably lives apart from them and Matt to the heart-stopping escapades he definitely does.

"Matt, buddy, if you're listening," Foggy says, hoping the other shop patrons assume he’s on his phone but knowing that most New Yorkers wouldn’t bat an eye at a thirty-something white dude talking into an ice cream cone because he’s feeling lonely. "Ice cream at The Cow's Moo is delicious and even if you refuse to eat sweets I'm totally treating you to a description of the decor."  


He strolls home at a leisurely pace, smiling at a dog walking its owner with joyful tugs and licking toffee-flavored drips from his fingers. He wasn't lying: the ice cream is delicious. He hopes he wasn't lying about the promise, either.

He thinks, but is careful not to say aloud even under his breath: _Totally treating you… unless I instead collapse back into a silent internal scream of nerves and feelings like every other time I’ve wanted to ask you out during the past ten years._

He sighs and keeps walking. Every day is a good day for pining after Matt Murdock, but the ice cream makes today just a bit more bittersweet.

Foggy finally starts to see the pattern the next morning when his barber insists his account is due for a free haircut. Foggy wonders vaguely whether he signed up for all of these discount memberships and reward programs in a fit of rage against the economic system that had stolen his childhood to only then forgot about the whole process during a subsequent evening of ham-and-ice-cream-fueled repression.

(Foggy disagrees with his therapist: he'd rather not closely examine his coping mechanisms. He's got a lot to cope with these days and not a ton of safe ways to vent.)

(And, he likes ham.)

"After ten cuts, the eleventh is free," his barber smiles. She's peppy and tattooed and thin as a rake and dark as the night and Foggy loves everything about her, from the way she cuts hair, smells like cinnamon, and laughs at his jokes to the way her eyes are not actively trying to suck out his soul like those of some kind of underpaid energy vampire. 

"Khiri, light of my life, I know we go back a ways but I don't think it's been quite that many cuts." 

"Nah," she smiles again, easy. "Ten for you and your man together. It's the couples joint account deal." 

Foggy swallows, then nods. "Make it look good," he says, "for him." He has trusted Khiri with styling his hair since eleven months ago, not long before entrusting her with his feelings for Matt. 

Khiri laughs, not unkindly. "I got you." 

He returns to the office with a fabulous cut and the memory of Khiri’s strong hand clapping him on the shoulder as she winked and said, “Go get your man.” 

"Matt and I have a joint account... at my barbershop?" Foggy muses to Karen. 

"Oh?"

"We used to schedule back to back appointments, or at the same time. The barbers just assumed we were married." 

"Yea, that sounds about right," she says through a smile. "Why didn't you correct them?" 

"This... has actually happened before?" 

Karen gets the "do tell!" glint in her eye, patting the edge of her desk.

Foggy sighs, setting down his briefcase before he pulls up a chair. "Finals week of our first year, Matt stole my student ID card.”

Karen’s mouth twists into a tight frown, but she doesn’t say anything. 

Foggy catches her drift and waves a hand. 

“Nothing so bad as impersonating me to break into and then out of a prison.”  


“That wasn’t right,” Karen insists, still sore. 

“No, it wasn’t,” Foggy agrees, voice quiet. “But we both know that having Matt alive and working on improving is better than Matt being alone, and very soon dead.”  


Then Foggy brightens, diving back into his story. “The reason he stole my student ID was way dorkier.”  


Karen’s face tells Foggy, sternly, that he’s allowed to recapture the original subject but that she won’t soon forget or forgive Matt’s transgression. In his secret heart, Foggy understands.  


“Matt wanted to borrow more books than the limit. He told the school librarian he didn't realize it was my card. He basically charmed some poor, unsuspecting undergrad library intern into making the book loan happen." 

"And then...?"

"And then he kept using my card for the next three years? And nobody said anything."

"Because he's blind?" 

"Because I was using his card." 

"Because... you're an idiot in love?" Karen’s smile lies soft on her beautiful face.

Foggy sighs, leaning forward to very gently thump his forehead on her desk. "Because I was an idiot in love." 

Karen chuckles, but pats his arm. "No past tense about it." She squeezes once, then gives his shoulder a shove. "Now get him that ice cream I worked so hard earning you." 

Foggy cranes his neck, slowly turning his head to stare at her without lifting it from the desk. "You are devious." 

"I know." 

"Too devious." 

"Unless you want me to squander points on a cute cow shirt for your cousin, you should get ice cream for Matt."

"Y'know, I think I will." 

"The haircut looks good. He'll like it." 

Foggy smiles.

"I know he will."

**Author's Note:**

> Created because of a Team Red server creative spring with the prompt "valid."


End file.
